hard to lift and tug with no wind + heavy glider (atos VR #45kg..) + bad static balance...
I doubt the static balance is so bad as to be a significant problem for anyone strong enough to safely foot launch the glider. We're talking about an action which requires about a second to complete.
...quite tricky to do it in certain circumstances without getting in trouble (irregular wind)
If this is quite tricky to do it in certain circumstances without getting in trouble (irregular wind) then the same is probably true for the launch itself. And if that's the case you probably need crew. And ANYBODY flying ANYTHING can EASILY get the suspension tight with the assistance of crew.
Seems to me that the alternative technic is impossible to do with low hanging point on a big A-frame and a modern harness with a long plate and a rail.
If so - fine. Do the next best thing that works for you under the circumstances.
Move to launch position, set the glider down, touch your leg loops, walk through the control frame until you're stopped, then pick up the glider. If the air doesn't straighten up put the glider back down and relax until it does. Then repeat the procedure before you pick it back up.
I know of NO ONE who's made an effort to establish that procedure who's launched unhooked.
not convinced by the leechline. If some can forget the carabiner at preflight, they can forget the leechline too..
No.
THE SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS THING that anyone in foot launched hang gliding can do is ASSUME that he's hooked in based upon what he REMEMBERS or THINKS HE REMEMBERS doing with the carabiner at PREFLIGHT.
Many people have died because they thought they had connected and checked and because they HAD connected and checked but subsequently DISCONNECTED and only remembered that they had disconnected when it was two seconds too late.
Therefore one must NEVER allow himself to be reassured that he's hooked in based on something he did more than five or ten seconds ago - and, preferably, a lot less.
I've launched more times than I care to remember or admit with a flapping chin strap, a dangling chest buckle, untensioned battens, and luff lines snagged under batten tips. One time I was walking to launch and my control frame fell apart because I hadn't installed a downtube / basetube junction pin. (Last time I screwed that pooch.)
But I have NEVER come anywhere CLOSE to forgetting / failing to do a hook-in check within two seconds of launch. The mere thought of running off a slope or ramp without a lift and tug horrifies me. I'm fully confident that if I had trained myself for the leechline trick I'd have been equally reliable.
I would predict that if someone makes a reasonable effort to train himself for the leechline trick he will in very short order feel totally naked without the string in teeth when he's trimming the glider for launch.
I'm afraid that the fear of not being hook-in can disapear for a regular pilot accustomed and comfortable on his own takeoff who has never encountered hook-in issue..
You are ABSOLUTELY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CORRECT.
And the chances that that "pilot" will launch unhooked at some point over a long career are very high. Statistically he will have about Russian roulette odds of not getting seriously hurt. He'll do it on a beach, training hill, or shallow slope or tow operation and/or be able to abort.
And there are people who still don't get it and launch unhooked a second time without getting hurt. Davis immediately comes to mind (unfortunately).
But often enough there's a Bill Priday or Kunio Yoshimura who gets an opportunity to experience the consequences of being accustomed to and comfortable with his own takeoff just ONCE.
Rob Kells - 2005/12
Each of us agrees that it is not a particular method, but rather the fear of launching unhooked that makes us diligent to be sure we are hooked in every time before starting the launch run.
If you don't have or lose the fear of launching unhooked your probability of launching unhooked SKYROCKETS.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18876
Hang glider Crash
Helen McKerral - 2010/09/07 00:16:04 UTC
There have been numerous threads in the past about unhooked launches and ways to prevent them. One constant poster, Tad, had an unfortunate brow-beating style that flooded threads and got him banned, but IMO his point was nonetheless valid; people simply got so annoyed by his style, they stopped listening and his message was lost.
Basically, the idea is that no matter whether you use the Aussie method or not (another emotive topic), or how you do your hang check (step through or hang, look, feel, whatever) the VERY LAST THING you do immediately before every launch is to lift the glider up off your shoulders so the hangstrap goes tight and you FEEL the tug of your legloops around your groin/thighs.
More important, I think, is a change in mindset: that you constantly assume that you are NOT hooked in. That is the default mindset and only after you've done the lift and tug - immediately before every launch - do you decide you're hooked in. Also, because the default assumption is negative rather than positive, you are much less likely to start any run unhooked.
The way I've tried to incorporate it is to make L&T the first part of the physical act of lifting the glider to my shoulders in preparation for launch ie instead of lifting it to my shoulders, I lift it higher (L&T), then lower it to my shoulders, then start my run. In strong conditions this is more difficult but I often launch with a tight hangstrap then anyway (always in the Malibu, occasionally in the Litesport).
I've adopted the lift and tug but I'm an old dog learning a new trick and I still forget to do it some of the time. However, although I've found that it's very hard to remember to do if you try to remember 'L&T', if you change your mindset to, "I'm not hooked in", it's easier to recall. It would be easier if I had learned it from the start, so it was a physical muscle memory instilled from my first days on the training hill, just like the grapevine grip changing to bottle.
Even if you don't follow the "mindset" part, it's an extra layer of security and there is no possible harm in it if it is an *additional* check; for me, a third one after Aussie method (hook harness to glider), hang check (look at biner, feel loop and riser, tug each leg strap), then walk to launch, do whatever (wait, set glider down, etc.) and then the final lift and tug as I pick up my glider immediately before I start my run.
I won't go into any more pros and cons of any of these things, they've been debated ad nauseam and every possible permutation has already been covered, just do a few searches.
More important, I think, is a change in mindset: that you constantly assume that you are NOT hooked in.
Dead on. Get the mindset right and you're pretty much bulletproof.
Even if you don't follow the "mindset" part, it's an extra layer of security and there is no possible harm in it if it is an *additional* check...
Start thinking that...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.
Steve Davy - 2011/10/24 10:27:04 UTC
OK- how many times does he need confirm that he is hooked in? And when would be the best time to make that confirmation?
Brian McMahon - 2011/10/24 21:04:17 UTC
Once, just prior to launch.
Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC
I agree with that statement.
What's more, I believe that all hooked-in checks prior to the last one before takeoff are a waste of time, not to say dangerous, because they build a sense of security which should not be built more than one instant before commitment to flight.
...you're probably OK because you never get into your harness unless it's connected to your harness and you did a hang check at the back of the ramp - but you should probably do a hook-in check as an extra layer of security and a harmless *additional* check AND YOU ARE SETTING YOURSELF UP.
